Cecilia Vissers 1964
visual artist
art advisor / projectleader
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Since the mid-nineties Vissers has exhibited her work in the USA (New York, Marfa TX, Houston) and Europe (UK, France, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium etc.). Vissers was a 2009 and 2014 Heinrich Boell Foundation resident fellow. She's a Brabant Art Foundation Grant recipient. Furthermore, she received stipends from the Dutch Embassy in New York, The Netherland-America Foundation in New York and the Municipality of Meierijstad in the Netherlands.
The wall-based sculptures of Cecilia Vissers are practically flat and fundamentally frontal. They're made of solid steel or aluminium plates up to 15mm thick. The placement of the work in an exhibition always considers the surrounding architectural environment. The space, the light and the work become one.
The book ‘Flatness in Space’, published by Lecturis, offers an overview of Vissers' work of the last fifteen years. The essays by Alistair Rider, Cees de Boer and Vilis Inde provide observations and analysis of the work.
Cecilia Vissers has experimented widely with abstract and conceptual art practices. Working variously in metal sculpture, photography and printing techniques. Cecilia Vissers' art references to the wild landscapes of Ireland and Scotland. In 1998 Vissers made 'Curve No 1' which serves as a template for all her future work. Many subsequent works have been inspired by its proportions.
Cecilia Vissers has experimented widely with abstract and conceptual art practices. Working variously in metal sculpture, photography and printing techniques. Cecilia Vissers' art references to the wild landscapes of Ireland and Scotland. In 1998 Vissers made 'Curve No 1' which serves as a template for all her future work. Many subsequent works have been inspired by its proportions.
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Although my steel sculptures appear to be abstract, each piece invokes my own experience. I have a fascination for remote and wild places like Achill Island (IRL) and the Inner Hebrides in Scotland. These coastal landscapes reveal a fundamental truth. The power and serenity of nature bring me closer to the essence of life. Knowledge emerges from these experiences in nature rather than from reason.
Cecilia Vissers, 2021.
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"The commitment to absolute technical precision, which these sculptures exhibit, would undoubtedly have appealed to the exacting production standards of Donald Judd. Vissers’ approach to making art has much in common with the pared down language of American minimalism, with which artists such as Judd and Dan Flavin are now associated. But her work also belongs to an older tradition of geometric abstraction that derives inspiration from the natural world."
Dr. Alistair Rider, art historian, lecturer in Art History at the University of St Andrews, UK , 2015
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"Standing before a wall sculpture of Cecilia Vissers, it seems a crucial point to me that she is able to beautifully balance the experience of the mountain landscape and the experience of the resulting artwork. The two experiences – materially speaking, extremely divergent – she doesn't make equal, she makes them rhyme, that is, she makes them exchange meanings on several levels."
Cees de Boer, curator and art critic, Amsterdam, 2016
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“The work of Cecilia Vissers compliments the artwork of Donald Judd. It reflects a new minimalism that goes beyond the formal elements of minimalism - a box is box, but incorporates more. Thus, while Vissers works in the minimalist aesthetic, she is presenting an abstraction of her relationship with nature. It is a powerful step - bringing an element of content to what is otherwise considered minimalist.”
Vilis Inde – Director inde/jacobs Gallery, Marfa TX, 2015
